The overall look is one of modularity, like you could stack different bricks together to add capability. Did this carry over to the internal design, or was it just an aesthetic treatment?

Well, partly. The base unit always has those three sections. The 5,25" floppy disk drive of the right unit is separate and docks onto the base unit. There was also a tape streamer available.

Inside, you have a dumb mainboard. CPU, memory, and such are on an ISA card. You can simply swap that card for an 386sx for example (impossible to find these days, unfortunately).

Was an optical drive in one of the 5.25" bays also possible, or did they die out as a brand before multimedia was a big deal?

The left one is from 1988, the right one from 1990. 😁

I already had the idea to get another 5.25" bay and connect a CD-ROM through the AHA-1542CF.

The design is too cool not to!

Those look sweet. Any shots from behind and inside?

Nice systems! First time I see them, thanks for the pics

firage wrote:

Those look sweet. Any shots from behind and inside?

Sure. 😀

The System 202 without cover:

(note: the front speaker has been added by me - it's connected to the sound card)

The CPU board:

The EGA I/O board:

The CPU board of the VGA System 70:

(did some mods on this one 😉 )

These look fantastic. I've never before seen a Schneider system never mind two!

I'm glad they are in the hands of someone who will preserve and look after them.

Thanks for posting the pictures.

theres quite a few components on that backplane.. performance wise, how does such a thing do? show some games or programs running on it please?

Hard to say, as those are the only 286 PCs I own, so I can't compare. The VGA System 70 is just as fast as an 386sx @ 16 MHz. It runs Wolfenstein 3D with max. window size just fine.

The System 202 is noticeably slower. Still quite usable, since the ISA bus is overclocked at 10 MHz.

Those computers look like they want to be a Convergent NGEN when they grow up - a 286 (or 186!) machine that actually uses sidecars for modularity. They're also not PC compatible, for good reasons. (and could do real multitasking on 186!)

386_junkie wrote:

These look fantastic. I've never before seen a Schneider system never mind two!

Schneider also sold the Amstrad PCW systems on the German/mainland European market - rebadged to their own name, and likely manufactured in their own factories, as there were some color differences between an Amstrad PCW and a Schneider PCW.

Yes, the Amstrad PCW was called "Joyce" here in Germany. There were no differences however (color/connectors differed on the Amstrad PCW as well)

btw, in the very first picture, a Schneider Joyce was standing about one meter away from the two AT Towers. 😁

Man I remember seeing those in computer shops! Brings back good memories.

These Schneider PCs, I believe they are highly collectable and there is a fine community that supports them.

I collect them too 😀
https://www.flickr.com/photos/94839221@N05/se … 157660715046016
https://www.flickr.com/photos/94839221@N05/se … 157662905805701

These are very fine machines. Just beautiful and the case has a GREAT Design!

I contacted the old ceo of the company recently in order to get in contact with some former schneider engeniers that perhaps could help trying to optimize the Bios of the 386sx machine in order to get more Harddrives recognized, but he has had no contact to his former engeniers for a long time. A guy in Berlin has had contact to one schneider engenier in the us (currently employee of quantum technologies) but I think that was a dead end too. Nevertheless, larger IDE HDD's can be patched with other tools to get them to work with the Schneider 386sx.

I love the 286 models, the 386sx is not so agile.

Very nice stuff.

Sometimes I have this dream of getting rid of everything, simplifying things, one retro PC, a Roland MT-32 and playing Monkey Island rather than building PCs. Such a machine would be perfect for this 😁

Wow! An interesting looking PC from the past!

I saw the CPU board for the first time. I began with Intel Pentium 100 Mhz on an AT Motherboard back then, not earlier.

That's another project for you, Phil. What's the minimum of equipment required to play anything - or everything - PC based (foregoing DOSBox emulation, of course)?